If there is one position on the team that I don't have many worries about (besides WR), it's the OL. As was pointed out by several analysts when Coach took over, compared to blocking for a spread option, blocking for a shotgun spread is a kindergarten picnic.
There will be no problems with run blocking; that's all these people have been doing for their entire career, so I'm assuming that the major concerns are about pass blocking. That's a legit concern; the pass blocking was better last year, but still not up to what we need for a shotgun attack. But I think that's the result of three factors: one inherent in the spread option and two dependent on who's playing QB. The first and most important, imho, is the splits. Shotgun teams typically use 2 foot splits and a two point stance. This makes backing up to form a pocket less of a challenge. The spread option used 3 - 4 foot splits to spread the D out and create running lanes and a three or four point stance with weight forward. And, of course, that worked. But most pass plays were play action and that meant that the pocket had to form a yard or so back with OLs trying to keep in front of the opposition while forming up. That isn't easy to do consistently and the predominance of the running attack meant that practice time and game experience with pass blocking were not too great. The other two concerned the QB. JT was very successful throwing the ball. This was because he was mobile, had a real facility for spotting receivers quickly, and a pretty quick release. When he decided to throw he did pretty well. TaQuon - and I loved him, btw - had a harder time spotting receivers and a relatively slow release. He could throw successfully if he had the time, but he took more then JT usually did and blocking breakdowns were more common. It remains to be seen if whoever ends up at QB will get back to the JT standard. Further, the article is right that the OLs will have to learn new pass blocking techniques and they will need experience with them to work effectively. But we do have a decent OL coach who seems to think his OLs are on the right track and whoever the new QB is will be in an offense that makes throwing the ball easier.
One other thing: some here have an obsession with size. It's good to remember that all the OLs put on weight last year and will have put on more by the fall and the DLs they are up against are smaller then the OLs at their present weight and greater mobility counts in blocking them. I think the OL will do just fine once they get a little game experience.
Now, concerns about the DL are another story. There Tech tragically lost a player who could have made a great difference in the scheme Coach seems to want to use. That's why I'm worried about - a lot - about our DL, particularly when it comes to depth at DT. We have three solid players there, but they could sure use a fourth. DE is also plagued with depth problems.
But no doubt many of the issues we think are important here will turn out to be no real concern and something we never anticipated will be the real source of trouble. That's always how it works out.
